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Ainol S100 4GB Review

Introduction:

The S100 is Ainol’s first touch screen MP4. That paves the way for just how cool a feeling this player really has, and all done with your thumb or forefinger. Yes the firmware version is ‘07′. The older chip being much more stable. Available with up to 8GB of internal memory. In tests, over the course of events, 10 of which were updating the firmware, found the perfect solution on previous versions of the Bugs being the strong point behind the problems in the bigger chip.

Design:

The S100’s size is close to that of the Teclast T50, but with a 3″(inch) screen. I thought it to be smaller, so I measured it myself. The touch sensitive buttons are located along the right side of the faceplate. Along the right side of the player, are the micro SDHC slot(up to 32GB capacity), USB port, and the earphone(3.5mm respectively). Along the left side of the player, are the Power/Hold slide button, the Reset, and the Microphone.

Screen:

The S100’s main function is the WideScreen MP4. having a 16:9 screen, it does still have a small amount of pixels in the darker areas of movies and videos. Having the Jz4732 chip means good speeds and viewing angles, and also having a TFT LCD 400×240 picture element.

User Interface(UI):

This is very Ainol typical. Five touch sensitive buttons along the right side of the faceplate. The buttons in down order are: Right/Forward(right arrow), Left/Back(left arrow), Mode(small circle around word), Volume Up & Scroll Up(speaker w/increasing motion), and Volume Down & Scroll Down(speaker w/decreasing motion). Along the right side of the player are where the Slot, USB port, and earphone jack. Along the left side of the player are the Power/Hold button, Reset, and Microphone. Using a standard USB, 3.5mm earphone jack, and supporting up 32GB Micro SDHC external memory cards.

Graphical Interface(GUI):

When you turn on the S100, there is a green opening screen with Ainol S100 displayed.
In the bottom right corner of the screen, is where you can watch the players loading progress. After this is completed, you will see the menu listing. Consisting of(in order): Music, Video, Games, Animation Picture, Radio, Record, E-Book, Browse All Files, and System Set. This is where you will find: About(consists of memory and firmware), Theme Choose, Display, E-Book fonts, Blight Time(backlight length), Auto Off, Language, Speaker, and Default Set.

Audio:

Compatible with MP3, WMA, APE, and FLAC files. It has about a 20+ hour playback on audio files. I used it myself at work and it didn’t lower the battery level, at all, till the second day I used it. It still took a little while longer than that before it was down far enough to noticeably need charged again. It does support many styles of playback, and handles it quite well. There is no distortion in any of the music we play on it. No skipping, no dragging, no skipping of any sort. It features a built in DIY speaker, capable of crisp sound, and high frequency output. As for the EQ: Prior to the firmware, the bass option was a bit un-usable (too much distortion @ about 22 on the volume level). After the update, I noticed that the bass option had a little more clarity, carrying the tone actually quite well with no distortion at the same volume level of 22. I tried it out on numerous styles/types of music including the Oppo S11 sound demo. Which I must say you should save and use on all your players for the sound testing which you may do.

Video:

Video playback is quite impressive also on this player. With it supporting AVI, WMV, DIVX, MPEG4, XVID, RMVB, FLV, 3GP, and MP4. So far on the S100, we have watched Anamorph, and The Longest Yard. With all the pausing and playing it has held up quite well as far as the battery life is concerned. We used about 8 1/2 hours of play with about two lines of battery left (added a couple more movies and sat here watching them), so it’s hard to tell if I just got lucky with the battery life in this player. I personally use AVI conversion for all my movies and videos due to the clarity of them, so there was almost no problems with them at all. Also, since the JZ chips need less power to run than other chips and players, there is far less battery drain.

Photos:

While supporting of course JPG, it will also nicely handle JPEG, and GIF. Also utilizes the photo album quite well. I have quite a few loaded into the album area and all of it looks very good. Clear, crisp color, and no problem with distortion there either. This screen configuration is just incredible. For all the things that myself and my daughter like to use on this player, it has outsurpassed my expectations. The size of it definately does not make clear just how powerful this player truely is.

Other Features:

Fm Radio:

Works quite well also. The earphones are the antenna, and I have tested it with numerous sets of earphones to determine if there was any difference with them. So far what I found is that it doesn’t matter which headphones you use, it’s mainly dependent on where you are to a radio tower. But it is just as good as most car stereos.

Games:

The S100 comes with a few games built in. Having Snakes(common snake game), Erros(tetris game), and Brick(brick breaking game). The touch panel controls the games pretty good I must say.

Voice Recording:

Personally tested it, and it sounds just as good as the music, video, and FM radio. Very clear and understandable.

Text Viewing:

The S100 supports this function, and it is big enough to view with little effort. Also features an autoscroll, which you can set yourself to whatever speed you would like it to move.

Accessories:

It came with headphones which are typical to Ainol and good in quality. Microfiber cleaning cloth, USB cable, User manual(not english), and warranty card. Also included in my package were a very needed carrying case, screen protectors, neckstrap (which cannot be used with the S100 due to there not being anywhere to connect it), an earphone fish(earphone organizer), a sock case(which has a snug fit), and an extra set of earphones (that don’t sound too bad for an obvious offbrand).

Conclusion:

The Ainol S100 4GB PMP has definately changed my mind about slimmer players. This little player has lived up to the Ainol Stereotype. Very good UI, easily used, compact w/ great viewing experience, oh and did I mention Child Friendly. The only thing that I have yet to find about it that I don’t like, is the fact that I cannot find a silicon case of any sort that will fit it, and still leave the side touch panel still accessible. Otherwise, this player has passed the Da_Tinker tests.
Enjoy your players.